Mertler Book Reflection

I found Mertler’s book, Action Research: Teacher as Researches in the Classroom, to be an easy read.  I feel it was personally relevant since I am as well conducting an action research project.  The book modeled expectations well.  It explained what all the different components of action research are.  For example, a portion that kept refereeing back to was chapter six: Analyzing Data.  Mertler went into great detail about the differences between qualitative and quantitative data.  This section was easy to follow once the form of data collection was decided.  Mertler explicitly went over the how and when to analyze the data, as well as the forms in which it could be displayed.  The section before the latter was also extremely helpful, chapter five: Collecting Data.  This is where I got all of my ideas on which methods I was going to use to collect my data.  This section really helped me weigh the positives and limitations to both types of data collection. 

Another positive to Mertler’s book is that it is very well laid out.  Since it is organized in the steps in which you follow to conduct action research, it is easy to look back and reference the book.  I recently just referenced the data analysis section.  I am currently in the data collection / data analysis portion of my own action research so I reread the data analysis section to refresh myself on how I was planning on interpreting my data.

The supplemental reading material was useful, but seemed to be more involved.  I feel that by reading Mertler’s book first laid a good foundation base of knowledge, and the outside articles built off that base well.  With a solid foundation, one can go beyond that text and start to apply the knowledge.  All these readings assisted me in doing this because they provided such good examples and detailed steps to follow.  On the other hand, all the supplemental materials that came with the text I found to be redundant.   However, I think it is all based on how you learn.  Some students can pick up the meaning of the text, others need interact with it.  I think that it is good, as a teacher, to provide students with both methods of leaning and allow them to choose which works best for them.

I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in conducting action research.  I would preface by saying that I found it helpful to go through the book slightly before you are at the stage in your action research.  I think if someone read it all at once then tried to conduct the research they would be overwhelmed.  By following it closely to one’s own action research it becomes personally relevant and what is read can be readily applied.

Reflection of My Action Research Project

“In what ways will the implementation of STEM Education affect my 5th grade students in science and mathematics?”

            I choose this topic because I was concerned about the achievement of the students at my school; primarily because in the past they have scored below proficient on standardized tests, especially math.  Also, with the district implementing STEM Education (the integration of science, technology, the engineering design process and mathematics), I was concerned how this would affect my students because I am still held accountable for the scores my students receive.  I am curious as to what affects STEM will have on their achievement scores.  On top of having to implement STEM I was also named the STEM coordinator for my school.  Being in this position I would like to know more about the effects STEM has on the students so I can knowledgeably share the best practices of STEM education with my fellow educators.  As teachers, if we know the effects that STEM has on our students, we better know how to practice it.  Upon the conclusion of this research project, I will have a good idea of how to alter my STEM teaching strategies for next year.  On the other hand, this year STEM was only implemented into 5^th grade, next year, two more grades will be chosen.  It will be partly my responsibility to convey to them how to best implement STEM.  There are also some skeptics in my school regarding STEM education; with the information from this research project I will have evidence as to how STEM does affect our students.

            At the beginning of this class I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to research and how I might go about doing it. However, after completing the research proposal I had a concrete idea of what I was doing and how I was doing, as well as, how I was going to analyze the data I collected.  With having to justify every part of my project I got a deeper understanding as to what I was going to do and why I needed to do it.  In addition to learning what I wanted to do for my action research, I also widened my knowledge of research in general.  I was aware of qualitative and quantitative research plans, but I was unaware of all the different research designs and the multiple methods to collect data.  By learning all of new designs and collection methods I really had to question myself as to what I wanted to accomplish from this research project.  In all, I really enjoyed this aspect of the project; I thought it was a good way to make the researcher think deeply about their study. 

            I personally found the literature review very stressful, I was grateful that it was broken up into many different portions.  I think that locating the articles was the most challenging part, once I found my themes and analyzed the research that I found; I started to see the benefit of the literature review.  I was able to learn from what others had already researched about my topic, and it helped me refine my research question so I was not duplicating research that had already been completed.  Also, after reading others’ research I started to hypothesize what I was going to get from my research.  Along with learning from the literature and diving deeper in to my own topic, I also remembered how stressful deadlines are and how essential it is to save the things on your computer in more than one place.  On the other hand, professional writing is more refined opposed to the writing we use on a day to day basis.  After completing this literature review I remember what it is like to write professional grade papers.

            I believe that the peer review is a very beneficial aspect to this course.  Not only are we receiving useful feedback from our fellow classmates, but we have to look deeper in to the expectations.  With looking deeper into the expectations we get a clearer picture of what we are trying to complete.  Upon the conclusion of this, when I look back at my own paper I always have a more critical eye and spend hours rewriting.  Moreover, after reading what others have written and how they have formatted their papers, I take the aspects I find appealing and apply them to my own writing.  I think that peer review allows us, as writers, to develop a higher quality written response.   

Action Reserch Proposal

STEM Implementation Action Research Proposal

            At the conclusion of last year, I was concerned about the achievement of the students at my school; primarily because in the past they have scored below proficient on standardized tests, especially math.  As a fifth grade math and science teacher I was wondering how we could help to improve student achievement.  The school had just changed the set up of their fifth grade classes by implementing a departmentalized block format; where there is a two hour block for math and science, and a two hour block for English language arts and social studies.  The district also just piloted a STEM Education (the integration of science, technology, the engineering design process and mathematics) and had initiated plans to implement STEM throughout the district.  Schools were to pilot the program within their own settings, and our administration concluded that 5^th grade would take on this responsibility the first year.  This project will examine “In what ways will the implementation of STEM Education affect my 5th grade students in science and mathematics?”

            A theoretical framework that best supports the research I want to conduct is social constructivism.  “Social constructivists posit that knowledge is constructed when individuals engage socially in talk and activity about shared problems or tasks” (Driver, Asoko, Leach, & Mortimer, 1994).  STEM is a process that allows a cooperative group of students to collaborate on a posed problem and develop a solution.  With the posed problem being real-world investigation and the students being able to work together using higher order thinking skills, one believes that learning with retention has a much better chance of occurring.

            The action research will be gathered from my two fifth grade classrooms, which combined, total 33 students. The age range is 10-12 years, with demographics of 10 African American, 12 Caucasian, 10 Hispanic and 1 Asian.  To protect the identity of my students, they have received student numbers in addition to the first letter of their homeroom teacher’s last name. For example; C4 would be a student from my teammate’s homeroom, with a student number of 4.  I will also be incorporating data from last year’s students.  These students have also been given student numbers combined with the first letter of their former homeroom teacher’s last name, with the addition of the letter L placed first to reference last year.  For example; LD12 is a student that was in my homeroom last year, with a student number of 12.

            The action research study that I have created is a descriptive design, quantitative study.  I have chosen to collect quantitative data because I want to answer a specific question; “In what ways will the implementation of STEM Education affect my 5th grade students in science and mathematics?”   Quantitative research questions are stated in the onset of the research, and seldom change during the course of the study.  In order to resolve an answer to a specific question, the question must not change throughout the study (Mertler, 2009).  To resolve this question, I have created a triangulation of data collection consisting of: (1) a questionnaire of student’s interest in the implementation of STEM Education teaching strategies, (2) administration of Learning Link tests that assess student growth in mathematical thinking and then compare last year’s students (control group) and this year’s students (experimental group), and (3) administration of benchmark 3 and comparison of math and science benchmark achievement data from last year’s students (control group) and this year’s students (experimental group). This research design is a descriptive design because I am examining the phenomenon as it exists (Mertler, 2009).  STEM Education has already been implemented; therefore, I must conduct my research by making interpretations about the phenomenon already in place.   In order to keep the data reliable, I intend on using the Kuder-Richardson formula 21 to determine the internal consistency of the tests because they are only administered to the students once (Mertler, 2009, p. 127).  With the conclusion of my action research study, I intend on coming to a conclusion of how the implementation of STEM affects my students’; attitudes toward the new teaching strategy, growth in mathematical thinking skills, and their achievement scores on standardized tests in science and math.

            With all three aspects of my data I intend on using descriptive statistics.  I have chosen to use descriptive statistics so that I can simplify, summarize, and organize my data (Mertler, 2009).  More specifically, I plan on evaluating my data using measures of central tendency.  By using measures of central tendency, I can compare this year’s students with last year’s students.  In doing this I can determine to what extent STEM teaching strategies have on my students’ attitude, achievement scores and growth in mathematical thinking during fifth grade.  Although I am unable to give questionnaires to last year’s students, I can gather and appraise the attitudes of my current students, as they pertain to STEM Education.  I will make a statement about STEM implementation and have students rate the statement whether they strongly agree, agree, have no opinion, disagree, or strongly disagree with that particular statement.  In doing this, I can quantify the data and use central tendency to measure the statistics. 

            One limitation to running a quantitative research study is that I am unable to investigate the “hows” and “whys” of the research data.  With quantitative research one should not deviate from the intended research question, however, I am doing a quantitative study so I can get answers to my question.  I also think that my sample size of only 33 students is small considering that STEM has been implemented throughout the district.  On the other hand, incorporating the previous students scores strengthens any conclusions I come to because I can compare my results to a group of students who were not exposed to STEM based learning. 

The following timeline was created based off the school’s testing schedule.  My students have been moved to be tested first for Learning Link so that I can assess the data for my research.  I have added an extra week for analysis while students are on spring break. 

• March 12^th -15^th  – Administer Benchmark 3 tests; 13^th  -  Math assessment, 14^th  – Science assessment
• March 12^th -23^rd  Analysis of last year’s and this year’s benchmark tests
• March 19^th -23^rd  – Administer STEM interest survey
• March 19^th -23^rd  – Analysis of interest survey
• March 26^th -30^th - School’s spring break.  Additional analysis conducted here; where needed
• April 2^nd -6^th  – Administer Learning Link test
• April 2^nd -6^th  – Analysis of Learning Link data

References

Driver, R.; Asoko, H., Leach, J., Scott, P., Mortimer, E. (1994). "Constructing scientific

knowledge in the classroom". Educational researcher 23 (7): 5.

Mertler, C. (2008). Action research: Teachers as researchers in the classroom (2nd edition). Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage.